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Banana Peel Pulled Pork

North American · 40 min · Easy · 4 servings

Banana Peel Pulled Pork

The peels people throw away, scraped clean, forked into strands and cooked down with smoked paprika and barbecue sauce until they go dark, sticky and unnervingly meaty. It costs nothing and it convinces almost everybody.

~310 cal per serving — Calories are approximate, per serving — a guide only.

nut-freelow-calorie
Plan it:

Method

  1. 1

    Scrape and shred the peels

    Cut the hard tips off the peels and scrape the pale inner pith away with a teaspoon, which is where any bitterness sits. Lay each peel flat and drag a fork down its length, again and again, until it falls into long strands.

  2. 2

    Marinate

    ⏱ 10 min

    Toss the strands with the smoked paprika, soy sauce and maple syrup until evenly coated and darkened. Leave them while you slice the onion, so the strands soften and take on color.

  3. 3

    Fry with the onion

    ⏱ 8 min

    Heat the oil in a skillet over medium and cook the onion until soft and just browning at the edges, then add the garlic for a minute. Tip in the marinated strands and fry, spreading them out and leaving them to catch, until the edges crisp and darken.

  4. 4

    Sticky finish

    ⏱ 10 min

    Pour in the barbecue sauce and a splash of water and cook, stirring now and then, until the liquid has reduced to a glaze that clings to every strand and the pan is almost dry. Season, and pile it into whatever you like.

Notes

Use ripe yellow peels: green ones are tough and fully black ones turn to mush. Wash them well, and buy organic if you can, since the peel is the part you are eating. Scraping the pith is not optional, and it is the step people skip before deciding they do not like it.

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